Twenty teachers from across Ohio and Michigan have spent the week at The University of Toledo Lake Erie Center studying water quality testing and the potential causes of harmful algal blooms on Lake Erie.

The participants, educators of grades 4-12 grade, will present their projects beginning at 1 p.m., today (Friday, July 31) at the UT Lake Erie Center, 6200 Bayshore Rd. in Oregon.

The Students and Teachers Exploring Local Landscapes to Interpret the Earth from Space (SATELLITES) Summer Teaching Institute leads teachers in the areas of science, social studies, geography and technology through the process of engaging their students in projects using The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program.

During the summer institute, participants have learned about water quality issues, water quality observation techniques and geospatial technology applications including the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS).

The SATELLITES Institute is part of a collaboration between UT, OhioView, NASA and The GLOBE Program.

For more information, contact the Lake Erie Center at 419.530.8360 or email lakeeriecenter@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
WTOL 11 (Aug. 1, 2015)
WTOL 11 (Aug. 7, 2015)

The University of Toledo Lake Erie Center is hosting a poster gala today to showcase student projects from this summer’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program.

The “Using the Lake Erie Sensor Network to Study Land-Lake Ecological Linkages” projects will be on display 2-4 p.m. today (Thursday, July 30) at the Lake Erie Center, 6200 Bayshore Rd. in Oregon.

The participating undergraduate students from UT, University of Michigan, Hunter College, Central State University, Western Governors University, Michigan State University and Notre Dame College have spent the past nine weeks working with in UT’s laboratories conducting research on land-lake environmental challenges including harmful algal blooms, invasive species, climate change and water quality.

The 2015 summer research topics include hyperspectral imagery of Lake Erie blooms, substrate analysis of the Maumee River, effectiveness of home water filters in removing microcystin, performance monitoring of green stormwater infrastructure, measuring nutrient flux with microsensors and temporal and spatial patterns of the Eurasian Ruffe invasion.

For more information contact the UT Lake Erie Center at 419.530.8360 or email lakeeriecenter@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Blade (July 31, 2015)

A new state law giving easier access to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone will result in more lives saved, according to a University of Toledo pharmacy professor.

“It is definitely a proactive and positive move. This provides a new avenue to access a life-saving drug,” said Anthony Pattin, UT assistant professor of pharmacy practice. “With this new law, people can get Naloxone without having to get a doctor’s note or finding distribution centers, which are not widely available. This is potentially life-saving because people will have the antidote nearby in case of an overdose instead of waiting for an EMT to arrive and administer it.”

Anthony Pattin

House Bill 4, signed into law by Gov. John Kasich this month, authorizes a pharmacist or pharmacy intern to dispense Naloxone without a prescription as long as counseling and written education is provided. Opioids can slow or stop a person’s breathing. Naloxone helps the person wake up and continue breathing.

This law comes as the number of opiate-related deaths from prescription drugs and heroin in Ohio continue to climb; since 2000, there has been a 366 percent increase, Pattin said, making it the leading cause of accidental deaths in the state.

This new law will allow for a family member or a friend to get Naloxone for a loved one.

“People should always call 911 in conjunction with taking the antidote, but taking Naloxone as soon as an overdose is suspected is key for survival,” he said.

Despite concerns that making Naloxone more readily available will lead to more drug abuse, Pattin said pilot programs showed that did not occur. Also, Naloxone is safe if taken by someone who is not overdosing.

“This provides opportunities for pharmacists to offer a new service and show our value to health care,” Pattin said. “We have to provide counseling about opiate abuse when someone comes in for this antidote. They just don’t get it and leave.”

To schedule an interview, contact Brandi Barhite at 419.383.5376 or brandi.barhite@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
FOX Toledo (Aug. 3, 2015)

A top fundraising executive for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health System has been selected to lead The University of Toledo’s Advancement Division, pending approval of UT’s Board of Trustees.

UT President Sharon Gaber announced Thursday that Samuel McCrimmon, executive director of clinical development at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, would join the University as vice president of advancement. He will start at UT Sept. 8.

McCrimmon

“Philanthropy is key to the continued positive momentum of The University of Toledo, and in Sam, I’ve found a leader who will help elevate UT’s fundraising and messaging on a national and international level,” Gaber said.

Since her selection in March, Gaber has repeatedly identified as a priority a dramatic increase in fundraising, saying such a move is needed to increase the number of student scholarships, establish endowed professorships to help attract top-tier faculty, and to ensure that UT has the facilities it needs to advance research and expand its profile and reputation.

McCrimmon will oversee the merger of UT’s Institutional Advancement Division and its External Affairs Division into a single Division of Advancement including Alumni Relations, Development, University Communications, University Marketing and Special Events.

“I’m incredibly excited to be joining UT at such a transformational time,” McCrimmon said. “I have seen the impact philanthropy can have on institutional growth, and it’s clear to me this University can increase funding to leverage its strengths, improving the lives of students and the community”

McCrimmon said the ability to integrate the University’s branding and messaging strategy into advancement will be key to ensuring that all members of the University family have a clear vision of where UT is headed and how they can help UT achieve its goals.

“My wife and I consider ourselves to be midwesterners, so we are thrilled to become a part of the Toledo community because it feels like a move home,” he said.

He and his wife, Courtney, have two children: Evangeline and Duncan.

Gaber also expressed her thanks to members of the search committee for their time and expertise during the past several months.

McCrimmon started his fundraising career at Wheeling Jesuit University and served as director of programs for the Executive Service Corps of Western Pennsylvania. In 2004, he joined the University of Detroit Mercy where he advanced to leading the major and planned gift programs, providing strategic direction that resulted in record fundraising in fiscal 2010-11. He joined the UPMC Health System in 2011, and has overseen growth both of fundraising and infrastructure.

McCrimmon holds a juris doctorate from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, a master of theological studies degree from Duke University and a bachelor of arts degree from Wabash College.

Click here download photo of McCrimmon.

Media Coverage
The Blade (July 30, 2015)
The Blade (July 31, 2015)
13 ABC (Aug. 7, 2015)
The Independent Collegian (Aug. 26, 2015)
The Independent Collegian (Sept. 2, 2015)

The University of Toledo Peace Education Initiative is bringing more than 30 local organizations together to discuss the urban revitalization of Toledo and the surrounding region.

The Community Dialogue and Public Forum on Urban Revitalization Through the Lenses of Peace and Justice will take place 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 29, at the Frederick Douglass Community Association, 1001 Indiana Ave. Lunch, coffee and snacks will be provided at the free, public event.

The day will kick off with a facilitated dialogue, where an analysis of problems and ideas for transforming the city’s urban issues will be discussed. Topics to be addressed during the day-long event include economic justice, peace education, ecological justice and social justice.

Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson and Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak will give opening remarks. Toledo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Romules Durant will participate in a panel discussion at 1 p.m. called “Pursuing Urban Revitalization with Justice and Peace” with other community leaders.

“The particular organizations we’re partnering with have either a mission or perspective through which they approach their work in communities that incorporates peace and justice,” said Dr. Tony Jenkins, director of the UT Peace Education Initiative.

Other organizations partnering with the UT Peace Education Initiative will offer workshops and information about their work throughout the event.

The UT Peace Education Initiative, located in the Judith Herb College of Education, was established to help the University become a global leader in peace education. Through a variety of programming and research in peace education and peace studies, UT is working to promote understanding both in the local community and globally. The University offers a graduate certificate in peace education.

“Peace education, in a nutshell, is education about and for peace,” Jenkins said. “The two sides of the coin are learning that helps bring critical issues related to peace, conflict and violence into the curriculum, but more than that, it’s about how we prepare and nurture students to become critically engaged citizens who are able to create a better world for themselves and future generations. It’s not just learning about peace, but also capacitating students to resolve differences nonviolently.”

To RSVP, contact 419.530.2552 or info@i-i-p-e.org. For more information, visit utoledo.edu/education/peace/peace_events.html.

Media Coverage
Bridges (July 26, 2015)
NBC 24 and WTOL 11 (July 29, 2015)
The Blade (July 30, 2015)

A group of teens are taking over The University of Toledo this week to learn leadership and gain a global perspective.

The teens are participating in the second annual Youth Nations 2015: Global Leadership Experience. The weeklong conference, which began Sunday and continues through Friday, July 24, allows participants to have a real college experience, including staying in the residence halls and spending time with UT faculty and staff. 

Students will spend the week learning about issues facing our world, including power and fuel sustainability, human trafficking, cyber security, and two new topics this year: public health and water. Then they will take their knowledge and work in teams to come up with solutions, with the winning team members receiving scholarships to UT.

“They learn and gain a global perspective,” said Paulette Anderson, UT enrollment specialist and Youth Nations coordinator. “A lot of the students last year were inspired by the fact that they could make a difference even though they’re only 17.”

Participants also will get to see what UT has to offer. They will participate in experiential breakout sessions at the Lake Erie Center, the Jacobs Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center, the Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Neff Trading Floor and the Center for the Visual Arts. Those experiential learning breakout sessions will be 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, July 23. Click here for a full schedule of events.

Youth Nations also has a broader reach this year with 42 percent of the students coming from Ohio and the rest from all over the country and the world. Of the 140 students participating, 30 had to fly in to town, compared to only five last year.

“We’ve definitely grown in our reach and hope to continue that,” Anderson said. “We certainly hope with the two international students coming this year that we can keep intentionally reaching out to international students and getting them involved.”

Of the 108 students that participated last year, about half of them applied to UT and nearly one-fourth have signed up for classes in the fall.

As the country celebrates the 25-year anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this week, The University of Toledo is working to advance the conversation beyond addressing discrimination and accessibility.

A new undergraduate degree in disability studies beginning this fall at UToledo is the first of its kind in the country rooted in the humanities and offered exclusively on campus.

Ferris

“Disability has long been studied as a biomedical issue, but disability studies is dramatically different,” said Dr. Jim Ferris, the Ability Center of Greater Toledo Endowed Chair in Disability Studies. “Rather than focusing on the characteristics of bodies and functional limitations or impairments, disability studies focuses on disability as a social construct.”

The disability rights movement started in the 1970s and advanced when President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA on July 26, 1990.

Now the growing field of disability studies is promoting the scholarly understanding of disability as a sociocultural phenomenon rather than simply as a medically defined condition through recognizing the contributions, experiences, history and culture of people with disabilities, Ferris said.

“At its heart disability studies is about what it means to be human: who gets to participate in society and to what extent,” he said. “It’s about recognizing and respecting diversity. It’s about how to think about and talk about the ways of being different in the world.”

People with disabilities make up the largest minority group in the United States with more than 56 million people or 19 percent of the population, according to 2010 Census Bureau data, with that number expected to grow as the population ages, Ferris said.

“Everyone becomes disabled if they live long enough. It’s part of the aging process,” he said.

A bachelor’s degree in disability studies is marketed to students interested in careers in social service, public education, advocacy, government policy, health care administration, human resource management or other similar fields.

The degree program includes study of disability culture and history, disability law and human rights, Deaf studies, gender and disability, and autism and culture, as well as a mandatory internship.

For additional information on the Disability Studies Program, visit utoledo.edu/llss/disability.

Media Coverage
13 ABC and NBC 24 (July 22, 2015)
Inside Higher Ed (July 24, 2015)
The Daily Caller (July 24, 2015)
The Plain Dealer (July 24, 2015)
USA Today (July 30, 2015)
The Blade (Aug. 8, 2015)
The Independent Collegian (Aug. 19, 2015)

Celebrate the 23rd year of Art on the Mall from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 26, on The University of Toledo’s main campus.

The free, public event includes more than 100 booths featuring a multitude of media including acrylic, glass, jewelry, mixed media, pen and ink, oil, photography, pottery, textile, watercolor, woodwork and more.

“We’ve got some really amazing artists returning and quite a few new talented people who will be joining us this year. There is sure to be something for everyone at Art on the Mall,” said Ansley Abrams-Frederick, director of alumni programming in the UT Office of Alumni Relations.

Each booth will have artwork available for sale by cash, or guests can pay with a credit card at the artist’s booth or at a credit card station in UT’s Student Union.

Art on the Mall is a juried art show with prizes granted to top artists, and the highest award, UT’s Best of Show, will be presented to the finest artist with an affiliation to the University — current students, faculty, staff, retirees, alumni or parents.

Food and beverages will be for sale from Karen Anne’s Kettle Corn, Opa! Gyros, Java Sensations, K & K Concessions, Taste Spuds, Jeanie’s Weenies and Let’s Go Nuts. A beer garden featuring craft beer from Saranac also will be available for guests 21 and older with a valid ID.

Performances by UT faculty, alumni and students, and musicians from the Toledo School for the Arts will take place throughout the event.

Free parking will be available in Lot 1 South, Lot 1 North, Lot 13 and Lot 10, with golf cart shuttle service to transport guests and their packages to and from Centennial Mall.

Art on the Mall’s presenting sponsors are The Blade, Buckeye CableSystem and Huntington. Supporting sponsors include Homewood Press, Mail It and iHeartMEDIA.

For more information, contact Abrams-Frederick at 419.530.4316 or ansley.abrams@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Blade (July 19, 2015)
The Blade (July 23, 2015)
The Blade (July 27, 2015)

Many people dread getting a colonoscopy. They avoid it. They put it off. They say, “Maybe next year.”

Dr. Arun Baskara, UT assistant professor of surgery, will try to persuade those people that avoiding a colonoscopy could be a bad idea when he talks about colon cancer at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 16 in the Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center.

The free, public lecture is part of the Tie One On Awareness Lecture Series hosted by UT Health’s Eleanor N. Dana Cancer Center.

Dr. Arun Baskara

“The most important point I am going to make is that prevention is better than trying to treat colon cancer,” he said. “People should get their colonoscopy at age 50 if they don’t have any family history. If colon cancer runs in the family, the screening may change based on what age the family member had colon cancer.

“I want to create an awareness in the community about colon cancer,” Baskara said. “It is common cancer that we come across in the community. If we can catch it at an early stage, the prognosis is good.”

Baskara understands that people can be scared or possibly embarrassed about getting a colonoscopy, so he talks to his patients about the fear and reassures them about the procedure.

“I make sure that my patients are asleep so they don’t feel or remember anything,” he said.

But the benefits of a colonoscopy should outweigh any trepidation on the patient’s part, he said.

“Certain cancers behave in a certain way, whether it is in the right side of the colon or left side of the colon,” Baskara said. “Some patients will have symptoms early; some patients won’t have any symptoms at all until the cancer grows larger. The colonoscopy will help because cancer doesn’t happen just like that. It starts as a polyp and then it can change into cancer. If we start picking it up at the polyp stage, we can prevent it from advancing to the cancer stage.”

Each person who attends the lecture will be entered into a drawing for tickets to an upcoming sporting event or a gift certificate for spa services. To reserve a spot, email christopher.kosinski@utoledo.edu.

The Tie One On Cancer Awareness Lecture Series continues this summer. Upcoming Thursday lectures will be:

• Aug. 20 — Dr. Krishna Reddy, UT assistant professor of radiation oncology, will discuss radiation oncology as a cancer treatment option.
• Sept 17 — Dr. Samay Jain, UT assistant professor and chief of the Division of Urologic Oncology, will discuss prostate cancer.
• Oct. 15 — Dr. Iman Mohamed, UT professor and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, will discuss lymphedema.

The newest federal health regulation is warning people that anti-inflammatory pain relief pills such as Advil, Aleve and Motrin can increase the risk of heart-related problems and strokes.

Dr. Samer Khouri

But that doesn’t mean that these non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) need to be removed from your medicine cabinet altogether, especially if you are in otherwise good heart health, according to UT Health physicians.

Dr. Samer Khouri, professor of medicine and associate chief of cardiology at The University of Toledo Medical Center, said that ibuprofen, Naproxen and other NSAIDs should be taken in the correct dosage for the shortest amount of time.

“There is a risk and the risk is real,” Khouri said. “This new warning is a good idea because people sometimes think that over-the-counter pills don’t come with any risks because they can buy them so easily.”

The Food and Drug Administration’s new warning states that an increased risk of heart attack and stroke can occur even in the first few weeks of taking NSAID drugs. The current label only warns that high dose and/or long-term use can increase the risk of heart-related problems.

While Khouri supports the new label, he wants to make sure that the public knows that taking an aspirin like Bayer is still recommended for patient with heart disease or if you suspect you are having a heart attack or stroke. The new warning does not apply to aspirin, even though it’s technically an NSAID, he said.

“I think the public might be getting confused in this area because aspirin does not fall under this new FDA warning, although no drug is without risk,” he said. “Aspirin by itself can be an excellent medication to decrease cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, while also helping with headaches, fevers and arthritis.”

Dr. Rajesh Gupta

Dr. Rajesh Gupta, a cardiologist at UTMC and assistant professor of medicine, said it comes down to weighing the risks versus the benefits.

“If a 25-year-old person with tennis elbow or a sprained ankle wants to take an Aleve, then that is low risk while the treatment benefit is fairly good,” Gupta said. “However, for a 70-year-old with heart disease and a prior stent procedure, the benefits don’t outweigh the risks.”

If patients are already on a long-term naproxen treatment, for instance, they might want to consider finding an alternative treatment, he said.

“We have known for a many years that long-term NSAID use is associated with gastric ulcers, kidney disease and high blood pressure. This new FDA warning adds heart attack and stroke risk to this list,” Gupta said. “In general, these medications are not suited for long-term use, but the bottom line is each person should get individualized advice from his or her doctor because not every case is the same.”

To schedule an interview, contact Brandi Barhite at 419.383.5376 or brandi.barhite@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
Full Plate (July 26, 2015)